











































ONE HUNDRED 
ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


BY 

LEWIS GILBERT WILSON 


A Book of Religious Suggestion and Practical 
Efficiency in the Life of the Church 

For Private Reading or Newspaper Publicity 



THE BEACON PRESS 
25 BEACON STREET BOSTON, MASS. 

NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO 






.BvWs 

W57 


Copyright, 1923 , 

by THE BEACON PRESS, Inc. 


All rights reserved 


I&A704262 

APR 21 *23 








CONTENTS 


PAGE 

The Open Mind .i 

The Hebrew Library .2 

Gospel Simplicity.. 3 

The Spirit of Argumentation.4 

Tile Spirit of the Church.5 

Bad Company.6 

Repentance.7 

Life’s Incompleteness.8 

A Real Belief in God.. 9 

A Wicked Tyrant.10 

Each in Its Own Way.11 

Why Be Afraid?.12 

Prayer.13 

The Vision of Future Good.14 

Two Kinds.15 

“The Old Order Changeth”.16 

Jesus versus Conventional Religion . . .17 

What Makes Life Worth Living . . . . 18 

According to Its Best Capacity.19 

This “Joy Ride”.20 

The Religious Service.21 

The Scorner.22 

The God of One, the God of All .... 23 


























CONTENTS 


Our Sphere of Usefulness . * . r. . 24 

Experiencing Religion.25 

Satisfaction in Living.26 

The Original Christian Church .... 27 

The Fear of Impending Woe.28 

Be What You Profess.29 

The Bluffer.30 

Church and State.31 

The Standard of Manhood.32 

Being Spiritually Minded . . . . .33 

The Word of God.34 

“Rejoice With Them That Rejoice” ... 35 

Sovereigns of Our Own Province .... 36 

Making Allowances. 37 

Appreciation.38 

Why Complain?.39 

Living in Compartments.40 

The Service of Science.41 

The Quest of Modern Religion.42 

The Lamp of Truth.43 

“Old Rogers”. 44 

When Things Go Wrong . 45 

The Main Current. . 46 

The Triumph of the Ages.47 

The Christian Principle ..48 

Between Two Worlds.49 

The Christian Life.50 

The Quickening Spirit.51 

Consecration . 52 




























CONTENTS 


Christian Condemnation . r.i M « r*i [ 3 ] i* 53 
Religious Enthusiasm .... . . . . 54 

God’s Method. 55 

The Source of Power.56 

Love’s Efficiency. 57 

Permanent Influence.58 

Life’s Music. 59 

God's Universality.6 o 

The Light of the World ....... 6i 

The Gift of God.62 

The Higher Plane.63 

Sorrow Defeated.64 

Magnanimity.65 

Incarnation.66 

The Man You See in the Mirror .... 67 

‘‘Safety First”.68 

His Completeness.69 

Certain Victory .7o 

Saving and Spending in the Church . . . 7 1 

Religion and Life. 7 2 

Divine Provision. 73 

Sowing Dragon’s Teeth. 74 

He is no Respecter of Persons. 75 

A New Motive in Religion. 76 

Here’s My Hand, Stranger ...... 77 

Honesty in Religion ........ 78 

The Orchardist. 79 

The World’s Need ..80 

The Importunity of Truth . 81 





























CONTENTS 


The Spirit of Gratitude ....... 82 

Conditions of Living ..83 

Impressions of Evil and Good.84 

Religion and Social Welfare.85 

The Future Life.86 

The End of the World.87 

A Fortunate Position ..88 

Brotherhood Street.89 

Sunday Right of Way.90 

Saying It is So Does not Make It So . . . 91 

“Sacred” and “Profane”.92 

The Full Secret.93 

A False Assumption.94 

What Higher Purpose?.95 

The Pagans Looked On.96 

Fate is Fated.97 

Social Slackers ..98 

The Safe Course.99 

The Sweep of Universal Life.100 

Solitary Confinement.101 

The Saving Grace of Humor.102 

Law and Order, Universal and Eternal . ,103 

























ONE HUNDRED 
ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE OPEN MIND 

■ AHE Spirit of truth shall guide you 
I into all truth.” But the Spirit of 
■*“ Truth is helpless without the open 
mind. The Spirit of Truth cannot animate 
the closed mind, which irresistibly becomes a 
nest of errors. It is to the open mind, obedi¬ 
ent to the Spirit of Truth, that the Master 
says, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth 
shall make you free.” 


I 






ONE HUNDRED 


THE HEBREW LIBRARY 

HE Bible is not a “Book.” It is a 
Library. It took a thousand years to 



produce it. Its authors are legion. 
It is history, legend, myth, prophecy, poetry, 
love-song, genealogy, letters, folk-lore, fiction. 
It is wisdom for the wise, to the superstitious 
it is superstition, to the truth-seeker it is truth, 
to the foolish it is folly. It is all things to all 
men. It is quoted alike by the slave-holder 
and the abolitionist, by the fighter and the 
peacemaker, by the polygamist and the mo¬ 
nogamist, by the wine-bibber and the total 
abstainer. It is the most human of Libraries 
and yet God speaks through it incessantly. 


2 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


GOSPEL SIMPLICITY 

I F the gospels could be taken for just what 
they claim to be—not treatises or creedal 
statements—but just good news, simple 
illustrations of blessedness and right living, 
Christendom would not be divided as it now 
is. It is what has been read into them by 
later generations that has done much to neu¬ 
tralize their original power. 








ONE HUNDRED 


THE SPIRIT OF ARGUMENTATION 

A LARGE part of all the acrimony and 
persecution caused by doctrinal dif¬ 
ferences among the churches, has 
been brought about by those who have met to¬ 
gether, not in the spirit of Jesus, but in the 
spirit of logic and argumentation. It was 
the spirit of logic and not the spirit of Jesus 
that burned Servetus at the stake and it is the 
same spirit that has created, and still main¬ 
tains, the barriers that separate the sects into 
fanatical and arrogant factions. 


4 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE SPIRIT OF THE CHURCH 

I T makes little difference what name may 
appear upon the shield at the entrance of 
a church, or what its creedal basis, or its 
denominational affiliations; it is essentially 
Christian only in so far as the Christian 
spirit enters into it. There is an individuality 
to a church as there is to a person. The name 
by which it is known is one thing, but the 
soul that animates it is the chief thing. 


5 






ONE HUNDRED 


BAD COMPANY 

W ITH few exceptions the people who 
commit crimes are the people who 
never have learned to spend and 
be spent for something outside themselves. 
They are the people who, voluntarily or other¬ 
wise, have been closeted with their own sus¬ 
picions, resentments, grudges and sentimen¬ 
talities, and have not sought better company. 
Crime is double-distilled selfishness. 









ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


REPENTENCE 

R EPENTENCE, after it is too late to 
repair the wrongs committed, and de¬ 
layed so long that there is no time to 
accomplish a counterbalancing good, is a du¬ 
bious achievement. It is locking the door 
after the horse is stolen. It is returning to 
the soul’s Proprietor nothing for everything. 
Those who claim eternal happiness in ex¬ 
change for an empty life carry pauperism as 
far as it can go. 






ONE HUNDRED 


LIFE’S INCOMPLETENESS 

T HE incompleteness of this life, de¬ 
plorable as it may seem to many, is 
yet one of the greatest assurances of 
the life to come. If finished products of 
humanity generally prevailed on earth it 
might seem as if this life were an end in it¬ 
self. But this life is prospective. It needs 
another life to fulfill what is only suggested 
and promised in this present existence. This 
life does not end with a period, but with an 
interrogation mark. And the next life is the 
answer. 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


A REAL BELIEF IN GOD 

I F the belief in God were held and con¬ 
sistently acted upon every other article 
in every creed could be abolished. From 
that one belief spring all good intentions, all 
righteous endeavor, all co-operative service. 
From it flow all religious convictions, includ¬ 
ing faith in humanity, faith in the moral law, 
faith in the permanence of life and faith in 
the future of the world. The man who does 
full justice to his belief in God is as religious 
as any human being has the capacity to be¬ 
come. 






ONE HUNDRED 


A WICKED TYRANT 

T HERE is a tyrant abroad against 
whom every right-minded citizen 
should take up arms. He condemns 
without a knowledge of the thing condemned, 
he discredits and scandalizes without a hear¬ 
ing, he passes judgment without consulting 
witnesses and convicts without a trial. Other¬ 
wise decent people often become his abject 
slaves. Professed Christians sometimes are 
his most servile subjects. His name is Prej¬ 
udice. He was born blind and deaf but, alas! 
not dumb. 


io 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


EACH IN ITS OWN WAY 


E ACH particular household of faith has 
its own work to do in its own way, and 
the time saved by one household in not 
attempting to tell another household how to 
do its work will be just so much time rescued 
from the limbo of fruitless discussion. Great 
tasks as well as splendid visions of the ideal 
appeal to all alike for consecrated devotion. 
Blessed is that church which is willing to be 
used, unreservedly, as its Lord, rather than 
as its petty dogmas and idiosyncracies, directs. 


n 






ONE HUNDRED 


- WHY BE AFRAID? 

W HY be afraid to know the truth 
about the Bible, about the origin of 
the human race, about the nature 
of Jesus, about archaic creeds and antiquated 
conceptions of God? If men in business, in 
science or in statecraft closed their eyes to 
facts, just because the truth were unpleasant, 
or contrary to preconceived notions, then busi¬ 
ness would go to the dogs, science would be a 
farce and statecraft would become a tragedy. 
The Truth alone assures progress and free¬ 
dom. 


12 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


PRAYER 

P RAYER is the throb of the soul sending 
out vital energies, just as the throb of 
the human heart throws the purified 
blood into all parts of the human body. The 
circulation of spiritual life-currents is made 
possible through the union of the people in 
the act of spiritual devotion. This means 
moral sanitation, social health and individual 
peace. 







ONE HUNDRED 


THE VISION OF FUTURE GOOD 

E VERY race that has yet subdued the 
earth, or built foundations of prosper¬ 
ity in commerce, art, science and relig¬ 
ion has been, in the last analysis, a race at its 
devotions, rather than a people primarily em¬ 
ployed in argument and debate. They are 
people commanded by a vision of future good, 
rather than a people contending about pres¬ 
ent possessions or past achievements. 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


TWO KINDS 

T HERE are two kinds of people in 
their attitude towards religion. The 
one is on the defensive, ever jealous 
of what the past has said and done, always 
fearful lest a new truth should shatter their 
disfigured idols. The other is that multitude 
praying for a faith that is authorized by con¬ 
scientious thinking, by the agreement of pro¬ 
fession and practice and by a first-hand ex¬ 
perience of God speaking to the individual 
mind and heart. 


15 






ONE HUNDRED 


“THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH” 

T HE day of little things has passed 
away, so far as our ideas about hu¬ 
man life are concerned. Not, as the 
appendix in some of the old Bible editions 
said, is it “5789 years, six months and the 
said odd ten days” since the “beginning of 
the world,” but millions of years. God is 
no longer the deity of a single “chosen” 
people, but the Father of all mankind. 

“Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round 
Of circling planets singing on their way.” 

And humanity is not the outcome of a little 
oriental Paradise, but the child of untold ages 
of selection and growth. 








ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


JESUS VERSUS CONVENTIONAL 
RELIGION 

T HE priest and the Levite in the par¬ 
able of the Good Samaritan were, 
both of them, conventionally relig¬ 
ious. They were distinguished by the ac¬ 
cepted standards, in dress and in manner. 
They met the approval of the society in which 
they moved. But religion as Jesus repre¬ 
sented it was an entirely different thing. It 
meant the spirit to relieve the terrible suffer¬ 
ings of the world, to do hard and disagreeable 
tasks without even consulting the way of the 
world. It meant keeping an account with 
God despite popular opinion. 


*7 







ONE HUNDRED 


WHAT MAKES LIFE WORTH 
LIVING 

O NE must have a very diminutive faith 
to suppose that the vast possibilities 
of religious thought have been or are 
about to be exhausted and all the processes of 
human progress brought to a standstill. The 
human soul must adjust itself to its ever- 
expanding environment. In so doing new 
truths and wonderful avenues of human in¬ 
terest are discovered, and that is what makes 
life worth living. 


18 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


ACCORDING TO ITS BEST 
CAPACITY 

LIGHTHOUSE of the third magni¬ 



tude may prevent as great a wreck 


** as one of the first magnitude. The 
important condition for each is that it be kept 
trimmed and burning in its own place, with¬ 
out reference to the classification by which it 
is known. Whether of the first or the third 
magnitude that soul fulfills its destiny which is 
doing its own work according to its own best 
light and capacity. 


19 








ONE HUNDRED 


THIS “JOY ride” 

W E are taking it at this moment. It 
is in the finest car ever invented. 
No one knows when the power was 
turned on. It is going at the rate of 1,200 
miles a minute. It never rocks, or jolts, or 
chugs. It just slides along at this awful 
speed, making no noise that we have ears to 
hear. It is intended to be our “joy ride.” 
Whose fault is it if it be otherwise? Do we 
see the sights, sing the songs and appreciate 
the wonder of it? When we are bidden to 
alight, and once get our bearings, we shall 
know a thing or two. 


20 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE RELIGIOUS SERVICE 

W E often think more clearly, rise to 
our highest aspirations and feel re¬ 
vitalized for greater usefulness 
when we are touched by the spirit of an as¬ 
sembly. The combined thoughts, aspirations 
and vitalities of others gather about us. This 
is why a well conducted church service helps 
us to re-relate ourselves to the Source of all 
power. It identifies our lives with God on 
the one hand, and also emphasizes our de¬ 
pendence upon one another. A religious serv¬ 
ice “serves” our highest needs. 






ONE HUNDRED 


THE SCORNER 

T HERE are those who scorn all 
churches because they do not contri¬ 
bute to their material success, who 
scorn all reforms because they are partial and 
not complete, and who scorn philanthropic 
effort, because it does not advance their selfish 
interests. The Scorner is an exaggerated ego¬ 
tist, who, instead of adjusting himself to the 
world, expects the world to adjust itself to 
him. His only hope is the forlorn one of be¬ 
ing born again. 


22 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE GOD OF ONE THE GOD 
OF ALL 

I N the true spirit of Christian sympathy 
the world of to-morrow will put a just 
valuation upon the great ethnic religions. 
Better than ever before it will be understood 
that Buddha and Confucius are not the op¬ 
ponents, but the brothers of Christ, and that 
the true followers of each are the followers of 
all. The God of Mencius is the God of 
Isaiah, however each may interpret that God 
in phrases peculiar to himself. 


23 







ONE HUNDRED 


OUR SPHERE OF USEFULNESS 

O UR minds are not big enough to 
grasp the entire field of human need, 
but we may each live the intensive 
Christian life by finding and cultivating the 
sphere of spiritual usefulness in the little 
group where the lines of our lot are cast. 
To do good to all men is, first of all, to com¬ 
prehend ourselves and to do God’s work by 
hearing, for ourselves, the accents of his voice. 


24 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


EXPERIENCING RELIGION 

I T has been thought that “to experience 
religion” was to have undergone a sud¬ 
den revulsion from actual or acquired 
depravity, and to have experienced a sense of 
having been saved from impending doom. 
But since religion is life a full experience of 
it must include an experience of righteousness 
and honor—life properly adjusted to God 
upon the one hand and humanity upon the 
other. It is to experience the practise of the 
two great commandments—love to God and 
man. It is to feel at home in a God-inhabited 
world. 


25 







ONE HUNDRED 



SATISFACTION IN LIVING 

TF we choose to live in isolation and indif¬ 
ference, however careful we may be to 
live lives of solitary personal decency 
and good behavior, we only half fulfill our 
destiny. We cannot live to ourselves alone. 
The highest satisfaction life offers is that of 
knowing that we have made the most of our¬ 
selves. But we cannot make the most of our¬ 
selves unless we do our best to help others 
to make the most of themselves. 



26 








ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE ORIGINAL CHRISTIAN 
CHURCH 

T HE original Christian “church,” or 
assembly, or congregation, gathered 
for something of more importance 
than social enjoyment. Its members met to¬ 
gether from a spiritual motive. They be¬ 
lieved in prayer because prayer is the desire 
and longing of the soul for the making of 
better men and women. They came together 
that they might better understand their 
martyred Leader, and be and do the things 
he taught. 







ONE HUNDRED 


THE FEAR OF IMPENDING WOE 

T HE old Hebrew prophets knew re¬ 
ligion as Jesus knew it,—not merely 
as a safeguard from impending ruin, 
but as a finely cultivated capacity for God- 
recognition. It was the wicked perversion 
of original Christianity that got itself written 
large in the theology of the middle ages, 
which is responsible for the horrifying fears 
of impending woe. Religion as Jesus stated 
and lived it had its motive not in fear, but in 
love and confidence and oneness with God. 


28 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


BE WHAT YOU PROFESS 

D O not think that by saying to the census 
taker you are a Methodist, or a 
Baptist, an Episcopalian or a Uni¬ 
tarian (because you must say something) 
you have discharged the obligations of your 
faith. If you are a Baptist, be one to the 
heart’s center. If you are a Methodist, be a 
Methodist that counts for something. If you 
are a Unitarian, be a Unitarian to the last ap¬ 
peal of common sense, conscience and the 
kingdom of God. 


29 






ONE HUNDRED 


THE BLUFFER 

THEN churches contain no snob- 
bish people, then I am going to 
* V church. When in politics there 
is no corruption, no crooked partisanship and 
no graft, then will I take an interest in my 
ward, or my town. When people do not bore 
me then I will become public-spirited.” So 
says the Bluffer. He doesn’t mean a word he 
says. Fie is just a plain slacker. He means 
what Josh Billings meant when he said, 
‘‘When I git thoroughly ritch, the first thing 
I intend to do is tew bekum respekabel.” 


30 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 



CHURCH AND STATE 

^~>|HURCH support and church attend- 
1 . ance should no longer be regarded as 

a mere custom forced upon us by the 
usages of the past, but a direct and definite 
necessity of the State. To make Democracy 
safe for the world it must be a Democracy re¬ 
ligiously believed in and administered in 
righteousness. The State is no better than 
the people who compose it, and the Church 
aims to create a citizenship fit to govern it¬ 
self. 



31 







ONE HUNDRED 


THE STANDARD OF MANHOOD 


W HEN the horticulturist would show 
you what the word “apple” denotes 
he does not exhibit an “average” 
specimen. He selects the best apple from the 
best grower in the best season. So, if we 
would know what the word “manhood” rep¬ 
resents we do not consider the “average” 
man, but, so far as possible, the best of human 
beings, by his best thoughts in his best hours. 
Pessimism assails us because we allow our¬ 
selves to be influenced by the little thoughts 
of little souls in their little hours. 




32 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


BEING SPIRITUALLY MINDED 


A SPIRITUALLY minded person is 
not necessarily one who lacks red 
blood corpuscles, suffers from mal¬ 
nutrition and talks of heaven. Spirit makes 
things go. It warns of impending dangers, 
redresses wrongs, explodes errors, discovers 
the truth, denounces follies and superstitions. 
To be spiritually minded is to have a mind 
obedient to a conquering spirit. Thus was 
Jesus, Paul, Luther. Thus is the prophet in 
all ages. 


33 







ONE HUNDRED 


THE WORD OF GOD 

T HE word of God surely must be as 
inclusive as the word of man. The 
Creator would be less than the crea¬ 
ture if the creature had a wider latitude for 
truth than the Creator. Man cannot be more 
versatile than God, and to call anything pro¬ 
fane that is true, and anything sacred be¬ 
cause it happens to be found in the literature 
of a single race, is to make a distinction 
which leaves God out of ninety-nine one- 
hundredths of the very things for which God 
and not man is responsible. 


34 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


“REJOICE WITH THEM THAT 
REJOICE’’ 

T HERE are many people who, while 
they can easily weep with those who 
weep, find it quite difficult to rejoice 
with them that rejoice. The good fortunes 
of others do not always fill our hearts with 
praise. It is only they who have something 
to do and are doing it with zeal and success 
who can look with supreme satisfaction upon 
the success of others. He can rejoice with 
them that rejoice whose own life is a source of 
happiness to himself. The joy of the outer 
world is a reflection of the joy within the 
soul. 


35 






ONE HUNDRED 


SOVEREIGNS OF OUR OWN 
PROVINCE 

W HEN we fully realize that, as indi¬ 
viduals, we are the sovereigns of a 
province which can never be in¬ 
vaded by another, when we undertake to build 
temples as high as we dare to climb, when we 
plant vineyards as long as we have strength 
to labor, we are bound to get our reward, and 
it will be a reward peculiarly our own. It 
will be worth far more to us than any appro¬ 
priated glory and of greater value than the 
riches that fill other people’s coffers. 


36 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


MAKING ALLOWANCES 

L ET us try to make the allowances for 
others that we want others to make 
for us. Let us be charitable towards 
those who are doing things contrary to our 
own judgment or opinion. For the best part 
of our own work is to lend the helping hand, 
say the approving word, utter the note of good 
cheer. The pattern of life is composed of 
many threads and it were no pattern at all 
were they all of the same color. 


37 







ONE HUNDRED 


APPRECIATION 

W HEN you are pleased because of 
what some one says or does why not 
say so? It costs but little—just a 
little thoughtfulness! A word of apprecia¬ 
tion is often a source of untold strength. It 
renews the vigor of one’s mind and warms 
the cockles of one’s heart. To know that 
one has not labored in vain, or that one has 
given pleasure to others, is like the manna to 
the prophet in the wilderness. Isn’t that the 
very essence of the Christmas spirit? 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


WHY COMPLAIN? 


W E sometimes complain because the 
state or the city or the town govern¬ 
ment falls to a low standard, where 
boss-control, with its graft and its bribery and 
its ring leadership, has everything its own 
way. Under such conditions our recourse is 
not to do away with the democratic principle, 
but to promote the enlightenment and moral 
toning up of its majorities, and the zealous 
and patriotic use of the ballot on the part of 
every competent voter. 






ONE HUNDRED 


LIVING IN COMPARTMENTS 

W OE unto the man who lives in com¬ 
partments—who keeps his religion 
for Sundays and his business for the 
other six days. Woe unto the public servant, 
who, decorous and smiling at his devotions, 
goes forth to rob and plunder at the first op¬ 
portunity. Woe unto those who, in the man¬ 
agement of the state, or its institutions, or 
its social functions, has no disposition to carry 
the spirit of religion into practical effect. 
The man of compartments is the pest of so¬ 
ciety. 


40 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE SERVICE OF SCIENCE 

S CIENCE has been the great emancipator 
from the terrors of hell. It has given 
us a universe that contains not one 
square inch for the location of a literal place 
of everlasting torment. It has given us the 
immeasurable heavens without one cubic inch 
that is not filled with the love and wisdom of 
God. It has put an end to the oriental idea 
of a heaven above the sky and a hades below 
the crust of the earth. It has torn aside the 
veil that was supposed to cover the region 
both of the doomed and the saved, and com¬ 
pelled our thought to assume a hereafter of 
spiritual opportunity. 


41 






ONE HUNDRED 


THE QUEST OF MODERN 
RELIGION 

T HE quest of the modern teacher of re¬ 
ligion is to show that honesty in pack¬ 
ing a barrel of potatoes must be in¬ 
spired, not by the fear of hell, but by the love 
of God. You do not break your colt today, 
but you train him without allowing him to 
know one blow of the whip. And your crim¬ 
inal, however fiendish he may be, is, in the 
last analysis, the victim of an undeveloped or 
injured brain, or a perverted soul. By good 
rights the religious teacher is a spiritual phy¬ 
sician. 


42 








ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 



THE LAMP OF TRUTH 

K I ^HE great souls who wrote the Bible 

1 dealt with the necessities of their 

specific times just as the great souls 
of our time must deal with the problems that 
they encounter. Hard thinking and patient 
effort win the same rewards of divine revela¬ 
tion that they have always won, whether in 
the tenth century before Christ, or in the 
twentieth century after Christ. The lamp of 
God’s word shines to guide the feet, and the 
light of God’s word makes radiant the path of 
righteousness and peace as potently today as 
in the olden time. 



43 








ONE HUNDRED 


“OED ROGERS” 

W HY not take God as “Old Rogers,” 
the old miller of “The Annals of a 
Quiet Neighborhood,” took him, as 
the court of personal appeal whenever any 
question of conduct is to be answered, or any 
decision of right dealing is to be made? “I 
ask God,” said “Old Rogers,” “what he would 
have me do, and then I always know.” 


44 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


WHEN THINGS GO WRONG 

W HEN things go wrong and you are 
sick and in trouble, when friends 
go beyond their depth in the waters 
of self-interest and forget you, or when old 
Death breaks and enters your home, leaving 
empty and silent its halls and bed-chambers, 
or when you yourself receive through the 
good doctor’s warning the notice to put your 
house in order, for the white horses are at 
the door—throughout the entire course of hu¬ 
man life on earth, unto its last solemn event 
—it is God, and God alone, and your repose 
in Him, that keeps His lamp burning for 
your feet and His light shining upon the path 
of eternal life. 







ONE HUNDRED 


THE MAIN CURRENT 

T HERE is a main current of life 
sweeping down through the centuries 
from resurrection to resurrection, for¬ 
ever building up and repairing and transform¬ 
ing everything that comes within its embrace. 
In that main current of faith and hope and 
love there is no defeat, no loss, no dissolu¬ 
tion. The soul that finds that main current 
learns the meaning of eternal life. 


46 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE TRIUMPH OF THE AGES 

T HERE is nothing more pathetic to be¬ 
hold than human souls trying to be 
something and get somewhere with 
all the mental and moral drawbacks, and all 
the degenerating influences that they have to 
encounter. And there is nothing in the world 
more triumphant than the souls of the un¬ 
fortunate, the sick, the maimed, living at their 
best above all the troubles and tribulations 
they have to endure, preserving themselves 
in spiritual soundness and optimism under 
every kind of circumstance. 


47 






ONE HUNDRED 


* 

THE CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE 

S TOP for a moment and consider the hu¬ 
manity about us—the multitudes that 
the church in all its forms is trying to 
mould and develop and beautify,—to make 
perfect and entire! Remember that, however 
irregular and even ugly it may appear to be, 
at its essence there is an immortal soul, a 
spark of the divine life in which we are never 
to lose hope and for which we are to make 
any sacrifice. That is the Christian princi¬ 
ple. 


48 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


BETWEEN TWO WORLDS 

O UR life is spent upon the dividing 
line between two worlds, the outer 
world and the inner world. The 
outer world we apprehend through our five 
senses, the inner world we know through con¬ 
science, and the sense of God which impinges 
upon the soul from within. We cannot do 
justice to the former without being alive to 
the wonderful ministries of the latter. Here¬ 
in lies the secret of religious experience. 


49 







ONE HUNDRED 


THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 

T HE Christian life is the symmetrical 
life, and when we behold it we some¬ 
times fail to understand it and appre¬ 
ciate it, simply because it is symmetrical. It 
is a life that does not thrust itself upon popular 
attention. It may be spent in quietness and 
peace. It may exist in want and penury and 
suffering. It may struggle unseen and un¬ 
known among great temptations, and in the 
midst of great sorrows and agonies, but be¬ 
cause of the wide circle of its sympathies and 
its freedom from self-assertion and vanity, it 
is not always seen and eulogized. 


50 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE QUICKENING SPIRIT 

R ELIGION is, in reality, the Quicken¬ 
ing Spirit. Its function is to cause 
an inflow of life and spiritual illumi¬ 
nation. It causes dull wits to gain insight, 
selfishness and cruelty to give place to im¬ 
pulses of human sympathy and a desire to help 
others. It starts the soul on a new career in 
this world. It fits the soul for its destiny in 
the life that is to be. 










ONE HUNDRED 


CONSECRATION 

T HE commonest work done under the 
divine spell calls for a divine ap¬ 
proval. Touched by the fires of con¬ 
secration, the meanest task is saved from 
shame, and gathers a hue of glory that can¬ 
not fade. 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


CHRISTIAN CONDEMNATION 

J ESUS did not always please. Men went 
away after hearing him, sorrowful, indig¬ 
nant, crestfallen! He did not condemn 
them, but after hearing him they condemned 
themselves. They began to see the littleness 
and the selfishness of their lives, and won¬ 
dered what they could do about it. And thus 
it was that the torch of his power was handed 
on from him to his disciples, from them to 
others, until millions have tried honestly and 
patiently to do as he taught. 


53 






ONE HUNDRED 


RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM 

R ELIGIOUS enthusiasm, under many 
names, has made man superior to en¬ 
vironment and climate without, and 
to disappointment and sorrow within. No 
good work is failure. And to do good work 
until we love it, to follow our sense of the 
beautiful until we acquire a passion for it, is 
to become deaf to all meaner voices and blind 
to all sights of shame. 


54 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


GOD’S METHOD 

G OD favors law, organization, order, 
obedience, loyalty and patience. En¬ 
thusiasm is but a wayward and reck¬ 
less insanity without deliberation. God’s 
ways are along the lines of reason, righteous¬ 
ness and precision. There is no chance, no 
hap-hazard, no easy-go-lucky path to moral 
and spiritual victory. God decrees leader¬ 
ship and loyalty, system and intelligence, and 
by these signs his triumphs are always won. 


55 






ONE HUNDRED 


THE SOURCE OF POWER 

N O power to re-create conditions has 
its source in humanity. The one con¬ 
dition of final success in this world 
is a religious condition. It consists in a rec¬ 
ognition of God as the Reservoir of all 
power. On this ground we are justified in de¬ 
manding the exercise of essential religion in 
all the practical concerns of life. 


56 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


LOVE’S EFFICIENCY 

L OVE does all the great things in this 
world, provides all the luxuries, ar¬ 
ranges all the legitimate pleasures, ac¬ 
complishes all the unwelcome tasks, bears all 
the most dreadful insults, endures all the 
wrongs, suffers all the ingratitude, overlooks 
all the meannesses, pardons the most deadly 
follies, hopes and serves and dies, with the 
prayer of forgiveness upon its lips. 


57 










ONE HUNDRED 


PERMANENT INFLUENCE 

I T is a grand thing to have done something 
with the hand or with the mind that 
speaks for generations and to generations 
to come, representing some thought or illus¬ 
trating the nobler qualities of the artist or the 
artisan. Men live in this way long after they 
have passed from mortal sight. Thus one 
generation becomes the inspiration and guid¬ 
ance of those that follow. 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


LIFE’S MUSIC 

T HERE are possible vibrations of our 
minds that we may awaken in others. 
There are vibrations of the heart that 
we can stir into life in other hearts. There 
are vibrations of the spirit that we can awaken 
in the souls of our fellowmen. Those vi¬ 
brations, mingling together, enriching and in¬ 
tensifying each other, determine life’s tran¬ 
scendent music. 


59 






ONE HUNDRED 


GOD’S UNIVERSALITY 

G OD is not made with hands. He is 
not confined to times, nor places, nor 
races. “Neither in this mountain, 
nor at Jerusalem.” He is Spirit, and the true 
worshipers worship the Father in Spirit,— 
not in mere form and letter, not in mere custom 
and sacrifice. He comes to those who receive 
him, whether Greek or Egyptian, whether 
Samaritan or Jew, whether native or foreign 
born. 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD 

T HE character of the inspiration which 
Jesus afforded was moral and spirit¬ 
ual. To become a hero of the cross, 
to share with him in suffering, to watch with 
him in death, to rise with him in the lives of 
other men, and to save the world from the 
misery, heartache, cruelty and injustice that 
overwhelmed it, that was the realm in which 
he was the light of the world. 


61 








ONE HUNDRED 


THE GIFT OF GOD 

T HE gift of the world passes away in 
the bosom of the old years, but the 
gift of God is always new. Be the 
past never so glorious, so long as there are 
minds to think, hearts to love, imaginations 
to create new possibilities, so long shall the 
spirit of God be poured into the soul of man, 
—a fountain of ever-living water, as abun¬ 
dant as the needs of humanity. 


62 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE HIGHER PLANE 

I T is at best but a poor working hypothesis 
to conduct our lives upon the plane of 
present personal mortality, with its ever¬ 
present limitations. As Jesus was great be¬ 
cause he brought the thought and conscious¬ 
ness of God into the humblest expressions of 
human life, so our lives are worthy of our 
hopes and ideals only as we are able to think 
of them and express them in divine terms. 


63 








ONE HUNDRED 


SORROW DEFEATED 

N EVER allow the spectre Bereave¬ 
ment to block the path to joyful ser¬ 
vice. “O ye of little faith!” Anoint 
your head and cleanse your heart and go 
bravely forth to honor your dead, not in 
tears and with lamentations, but in a diviner 
ministry to the living. It is only after the 
giant Despair has thus been overcome that one 
may enter the Celestial City. 


64 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


MAGNANIMITY 

O NE must search through tons of the 
ore Friendship to find one small 
nugget of pure magnanimity. To 
find one friend who can do credit to the sum- 
total of a good and useful life is to meet a 
hundred who cannot see beyond a personal 
prejudice, a jealous resentment, or a scanda¬ 
lous report. The friend who defends you 
against calumny is a messenger sent from God. 


65 







ONE HUNDRED 


INCARNATION 

B ECAUSE a man resides in Plymouth 
he should not, therefore, claim all the 
virtues of the Pilgrim Fathers, any 
more than the man who is born in Syria should 
regard himself as another Jesus Christ. It is 
not the accidents of time and place that make 
men great, but their power to incarnate the 
best that is in every time and place. 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE MAN YOU SEE IN THE 
MIRROR 

I F you are currying the favor of those in 
authority and care more to gain the pat¬ 
ronage of those who can advance your 
selfish interests than you do to uphold your 
honest convictions, you may gain position, 
flattery and influence. You may hold office 
and gain titles, but when you look in the 
mirror you cannot have much respect for the 
man you see there. 


67 






ONE HUNDRED 


\ 


“SAFETY FIRST” 

“£>( AFETY FIRST” may be a good motto 
for running an automobile or crossing 
a street; but it will not go far in the 
building of Christian character. The man 
who will undertake no enterprise, side with 
no good cause, adopt no principle and make 
no decision until first he has consulted his 
own safety is a poor follower of the Nazarene. 
“Safety First” does not appear among the 
Beatitudes. 


68 








ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


HIS COMPLETENESS 

W HEN we think of Jesus it is his com¬ 
pleteness that impresses us. It is the 
beauty of his wholeness—or holiness 
—that makes him wonderful. It is not be¬ 
cause of his knowledge, or his oratory, or his 
goodness, or even his spiritual insight, but 
because of his perfect poise in a world of 
strife, injustice, cruelty and ignorance that we 
revere him. Nothing unsettled him. Noth¬ 
ing clouded the clarity of his vision. 










ONE HUNDRED 


CERTAIN VICTORY 

T HE man who chooses to be the cham¬ 
pion of archaic religious beliefs and 
superstitions may well lose his faith 
in the integrity of life, for he is engaged in a 
losing battle. It is only the Truth, as it is 
unfolded to meet the requirements of each 
successive generation, that promises certain 
victory. 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


SAVING AND SPENDING IN THE 
CHURCH 

A NY church that prides itself, prima¬ 
rily, upon the amount of money it has 
saved has allowed the money-changers 
to carry on their business in the wrong place. 
A church is a beneficence. It is its function to 
keep alive the God-consciousness in the souls 
of the people, to see to it that the prophet’s 
message is delivered and the good Samaritan’s 
task is performed—and the more money it 
spends for such purposes, the more of a church 
it is. 




71 







ONE HUNDRED 


RELIGION AND LIFE 

D O you realize that Jesus is not reported 
to have once used the word “relig¬ 
ion” ? He never defined, discussed, or 
classified “religion.” He never asked any one 
to “get” religion. He never referred to the 
“Christian Religion” as such. “I came that 
ye might have life.” Where life is abun¬ 
dant religion takes care of itself. 








ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


DIVINE PROVISION 

L IVE the high life, the happiest life, the 
best life here in this physical state, and 
then be prepared to realize in your¬ 
selves the wonderful fulfillment of all the 
promises now hidden in this embryonic na¬ 
ture. Anticipate everything, fear nothing, 
hope for all things. Nothing that we can 
forecast is greater than God can fulfill. 






ONE HUNDRED 


SOWING DRAGON’S TEETH 

T HE American citizen who encourages 
class distinction and seeks special 
privilege, who fosters racial hatreds 
and tries to exert autocratic power, is no 
American patriot. The genuine American 
citizen accords freely “life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness” to all. He who would 
do otherwise is sowing dragon’s teeth to reap 
a future harvest of strife and bloodshed. 










ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


HE IS NO RESPECTER OF 
PERSONS 


B ETWEEN what we call “great” and 
what we call “small” God makes little 
distinction. Does he hear the bells of 
the great cathedral? Does he know us best 
through the incense that burns upon the altar? 
Is he moved by our formal prayers? Doubt¬ 
less, but do not forget that he is with those 
whom we cast out, and is equally attentive to 
the pleadings of those who are wretched and 
obscure. It is the soul that he touches, and 
he touches the soul when it reaches out to 
him. He is at the door and comes in when 
we open it. 



75 







ONE HUNDRED 


A NEW MOTIVE IN RELIGION 

I N the past the chief motive in religion has 
evidently been to escape punishment of 
evil. To placate the devil has been the 
chief concern. To escape from hell has been 
the end in view. But today a new motive is 
asserting itself among thinking people. It is 
being good that the most may be made of 
life. As the athlete trains his body that he 
may win in the games, so the religious man at¬ 
tains and preserves mental, moral and spirit¬ 
ual health that he may make the most of 
what God has given him. See the parable of 
the Talents. 


76 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


HERE’S MY HAND, STRANGER! 

B LESSED is the soul who habitually can 
open up in true human sympathy! So 
many of us are looking out upon life 
through cracks in the door and secret slits in 
the wall! When you meet a man or woman 
whose eyes are fully open and look straight at 
you, cordially and in good faith, you have 
reason to offer a little prayer of thanksgiving. 
Here’s my hand, Stranger, shake! 


77 






ONE HUNDRED 


HONESTY IN RELIGION 

T O public professions of piety Jesus 
gave but scant approval. A simple 
Yea, Yea; Nay, Nay, constituted his 
ideal declaration of veracity. Honesty that 
must be propped by oath, rite or ordinance, 
would appear to be less Christian than Pagan. 


78 









ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE ORCHARDIST 

I SN’T it a splendid contest we have on 
hand—to measure up against and over¬ 
come the diseases and the pests that prey 
upon human nature? Talk about the Golden 
Apples of Hesperides, that Juno gave to Ju¬ 
piter, they may have been as fine in color, but 
give me the Newtown Pippin, after it has 
been brought to perfection through the vigi¬ 
lance and industry of man! Every true 
Christian is an orchardist. It is for him to 
grapple with the enemies of growth and per¬ 
fection and rescue the soul that otherwise 
would have perished. 


79 







ONE HUNDRED 


THE WORLD’S NEED 

W HAT the world needs today is a suffi¬ 
cient army of clear-headed, though 
ordinary people, who do not aspire 
to greatness, who are satisfied to let good work 
speak for itself, and who are so intent on good 
works that they are not lured away from them 
by a false ambition to become famous through 
a torrent of invective. Blessed be the general 
good-nature of mankind! 


80 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE IMPORTUNITY OF TRUTH 

W IDER conceptions of life and new 
beliefs sometimes comes to us in 
spite of very strong prejudices to 
the contrary. We may want to believe the 
old doctrines, but the hour comes when we 
simply cannot believe them. What we may 
really desire has little to do about it. The 
larger truth, the grander view, the nobler con¬ 
viction, is thrust upon us—it comes our way, 
and every generous impulse of the soul bids us 
receive it, no matter how strongly we may 
wish to do otherwise. 







ONE HUNDRED 


THE SPIRIT OF GRATITUDE 

W HEN Kant, the philosopher, retired 
at night, he had a way, we are told, 
of rolling himself up in his bed¬ 
clothing like a cocoon, and exclaiming, “Was 
ever a man in such good health as I ?” It was 
the spirit of gratitude that enveloped him. 
He was grateful that he could think, breathe 
and awake at five in the morning. Grateful 
that he was alive and could enjoy this wonder 
of coming out of nothingness into conscious¬ 
ness, even though it might not last for more 
than seventy years. 


82 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 



CONDITIONS OF LIVING 

7 HENEVER > * n an Y human body, 
disease is in the majority and health 
* * in the minority, it passes back to the 
dust from which it came. Whenever evil out¬ 
weighs the good, the organism that contains 
it ceases to exist. If health were not catch¬ 
ing, as well as disease, there would be no 
human society in existence. 



83 







ONE HUNDRED 


IMPRESSIONS OF EVIL AND GOOD 

I T is not a fair use of the human brain to 
so fill it with impressions of evil that it 
cannot be benefited by the inspirations of 
good. The ordinary social worker, the phy¬ 
sician who deals with the sick and deformed, 
the minister who has to take note of the evils 
of men and communities—all must harbor a 
capacity to see and estimate at its full value 
the good that lies all about them. 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


RELIGION AND SOCIAL WELFARE 

T AKE religion out of life and human 
interests thin out and become vapid 
and meaningless. The point and 
purpose of living is lost and you see men 
and women giving themselves over to the 
shallowest sort of things—things and interests 
that tend toward moral, spiritual and then, of 
course, to physical degeneration. The nur¬ 
ture and refinement of religion is the ultimate 
safeguard of society. 


85 






ONE HUNDRED 




THE FUTURE LIFE 

E NTERTAIN your highest hope of the 
Future Life—its heavenly bliss, the 
reunion with loved ones gone before, 
the vaster fields of opportunity and action! 
Should you not realize every detail you can 
crowd into your thought of the Future Life, it 
will yet turn out to be as much better than 
your thought of it, as God’s wisdom and 
power are greater than man’s. Your desire 
cannot be greater and better than God’s ful¬ 
fillments. 


86 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE END OF THE WORLD 

C REDIT no hysterical announcements 
of the immediate end of the world. 
When all who now are living here 
have mouldered into dust this glorious old 
world will be spinning on its way down the 
long trail of the ages. And, besides, we can 
live without it. We have to learn to do with¬ 
out many things, why not learn to do without 
the earth? 


87 






ONE HUNDRED 


A FORTUNATE POSITION 

T HOSE who look back to no fatal mis¬ 
take in the beginning of things, and 
who look forward to no final collapse 
of the universe at the end of time, are in 
a position to get out of this life all that 
it was intended to give them for their enjoy¬ 
ment and for their profit. 


88 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


BROTHERHOOD STREET 

M ANY a life has been saved from des¬ 
peration and many a soul rescued 
from unspeakable loneliness by the 
unaffected greeting which says, “It is just as 
if we had always been friends.” And why 
not? Brotherly love is from the foundation 
of the world. Where a human fellow-feeling 
exists introductions are unnecessary. There 
are no “strangers” on Brotherhood Street. 


89 







ONE HUNDRED 


SUNDAY RIGHT OF WAY 

G IVE the church service the right of 
way on every Sunday morning. If 
you like your church, your minister 
and your fellow members, this will not be dif¬ 
ficult. If you do not get pleasure in going to 
church, do it for the good fibre the church¬ 
going habit will put into your manhood or 
womanhood, the fine challenge it will offer to 
others and the solidity it will contribute to the 
character of the children. To always yield 
to the easiest thing is to become spineless and 
flabby. 


90 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


SAYING IT IS SO, DOES NOT 
MAKE IT SO 

S AYING that the sun moves around the 
earth does not make it so. Saying that 
there is no error in the Bible does not 
make it so. Saying that there are those living 
who will never die does not make it so. Say¬ 
ing that the world will come to an end in 1925 
will not cause that event to happen. Saying 
that Atlas was the son of the god Poseidon and 
the aboriginal woman Cleito does not make 
the statement a fact in history. Many people 
seem to think things must be so if somebody 
says they are so. But “to prove all things and 
hold fast that which is true” and “to be fully 
persuaded in one’s own mind” implies that 
one has a mind of his own and is willing to use 
it. And that, well—that requires independ¬ 
ent effort. 


9i 







ONE HUNDRED 


“SACRED” AND “PROFANE” 

W HEN Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of 
Jerusalem his work was no more 
sacred than the reconstruction of 
France after the World War. When the Pan¬ 
ama Canal was dug it was no more a profane 
task than when Moses, with his magic wand, 
clove the waters of the Red Sea. It was no 
more to his credit for Joshua to massacre the 
tribes of Canaan, than it was for Andrew Jack- 
son to drive from their ancestral homes in 
Florida the Seminole Indians. What is “sa¬ 
cred” and what is “profane” must be decided 
by our moral sense, whether inside or outside 
the Bible. 


92 







ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE FULL SECRET 

W HEN the full secret of the future 
life is discovered it will be a life 
conditioned by exact, rational and 
scientific principles. It will be miraculous in 
no other sense than that this life is miraculous. 
It will be like anything else we have found 
the secret of—a sequence of cause and effect, a 
part of an intelligent, natural, inevitable 
scheme and order of progressive existence. 


93 







ONE HUNDRED 


A FALSE ASSUMPTION 

O NE of the mistakes we all make in re¬ 
ligion, in politics and in social and 
domestic life is in assuming that the 
way the world appears to us today is the way 
it is going to appear ten or twenty years hence. 
And so we go on from one period to another, 
in a false perspective, until finally, God fakes 
us in hand and gives us his sealed orders to 
undertake some unknown but equally wonder¬ 
ful adventure. 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


' 

WHAT HIGHER PURPOSE? 

W HAT higher purpose can we, as a 
Christian society, entertain than to 
“walk together” along the path of 
life, to learn God’s will for ourselves, to help 
each other in finding and following the light of 
truth, to repair each other’s errors, strengthen 
each other’s characters and create everywhere 
the happiness of being, in spirit, one with God 
and at peace within our own souls? 


95 






ONE HUNDRED 


THE PAGANS LOOKED ON 

T HE pagans looked on and exclaimed, 
“See how those Christians love one an¬ 
other!” So conspicuous and dynamic 
was that spirit of mutual fellowship that it 
became contagious. It spread about like the 
light of a new star. In its larger influence it 
aimed to transform the character of the world. 
Under its subduing power war and race ha¬ 
tred and the grasping greed which caused 
penury and want were to fade away like the 
darkness of a solemn night before the rising 
sun. There is a darkness now which that light 
alone can banish. 


96 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


FATE IS FATED 

S OONER or later we have to learn the 
fact that what we call Fate is itself 
fated—that there is a supremacy over 
fate, and he who has mastered this thought and 
adopted it as a ruling principle of life can 
never become spiritually weak, even though 
his outward man perish. “Blessed is the man 
whose strength is in Thee.” 


97 









ONE HUNDRED 


SOCIAL SLACKERS 

S LACKERS in the war were bad enough, 
but how much worse are the slackers in 
time of peace! They are those who are 
content to let others carry the burden of main¬ 
taining peace. They are those who let others 
make the plans, do the work, assume the cares 
and pay the bills of human welfare. The 
man in the parable who kept his talent “laid 
up in a napkin” was a slacker. There was 
no hint of being saved by another’s merits in 
that parable. 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


THE SAFE COURSE 

T O use our brains here and now, 
frankly, fearlessly, and with pro¬ 
phetic sincerity, is the best way to 
prepare the soul for its future destiny, what¬ 
ever it may be. The heart that beats in 
sympathy with its neighbor need not trouble 
itself about the company it is to enjoy in an¬ 
other world. To use the eyes we now possess 
in creating a beautiful world here is to de¬ 
velop our capacity to enjoy the vision of 
heavenly glories. To employ aright the 
hands we carry on our mortal bodies is the 
best way to evolve the wings of immortal 
blessedness. 


99 






ONE HUNDRED 


THE SWEEP OF UNIVERSAL LIFE 

T HE destiny of this planet and of all 
the habitable globes is, after all, in 
the grasp of Life, Pure Life, Inex¬ 
haustible Life, Triumphant and Sufficient 
Life. The soul that is growing from more to 
more knows that it has been caught in the 
sweep of universal Life and that these physi¬ 
cal limitations to which it is of necessity sub¬ 
jected do not mean the diminution of Life, 
but its translation to higher spheres. 


ioo 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


SOLITARY CONFINEMENT 

HRISTIANITY was religion reborn. 
It came as a fresh summons to the old 



pagan world to dissipate its selfish¬ 
ness and to turn men’s eyes away from the il¬ 
lusions and fears that were driving them to 
self-destruction. The world needs a similar 
summons today and any church that realizes 
its opportunity will do its utmost to be heard 
by those who need to be released from the sol¬ 
itary confinement of a morbid selfishness. 
The salvation of many a soul is to forget it¬ 
self and its troubles in the interest of some¬ 
thing more worth while. 


IOI 









ONE HUNDRED 


THE SAVING GRACE OF HUMOR 

R EAL humor is a saving grace. It is a 
wonder that religion has so largely 
given it the cold shoulder. Why 
should religion not laugh at the follies 
and stupidities of human nature? Why should 
it present itself always with a stern and solemn 
countenance? If humor plays so large a part 
in the drama of practical life, is it not because 
in the divine economy it has a divine recogni¬ 
tion? How amusing must we appear to the 
Comprehending Intelligence when we take 
ourselves so seriously that we cannot make use 
of the saving grace of humor! 


102 






ONE-MINUTE SERMONS 


LAW AND ORDER 
UNIVERSAL AND ETERNAL 

N O crevice or cranny of the universe 
has as yet been discovered where the 
laws of Nature and the orderly meth¬ 
ods of Divine Power are not operative. The 
modern mind has no right to believe that 
either in time or in place, in this life or in any 
other life, any existing thing will be aban¬ 
doned to mere chance, or to the caprices of a 
hostile deity. 










* 

































































































































































































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